MISCELLANEOUS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 994, 28 November 1883, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

An American exchange is somewhat severe on cattle judges who award prizes to showy animals merely because they are such, and remarks :—": — " Nice heads, that never are served at dinner ; fine horns, that go to the button maker ; full . bosoms and flanks, that hardly make third-rate corn beef, yet have their value; the captivating neck, which takes full part in the show ; the hair, which finally reaches the mortar bed ; should all be considered secondary to a full widespread top, and not be allowed to divert the attention from those more important parts from which, and from which alone, good table meat is got." According to a correspondent of the "London Times," there are now altogether six lighthouses and one light vessel in the Red Sea ; four of these are in the Gulf of Suez, and of the remaining three, one — that upon the Brother Islets — is not yet lighted. Between the Dsedalus Shoal andPerim Island, a distance of more than 800 miles, there ia no light at all ; and thouffh for 800 miles, &( fee* leaving the Daedalus, there are no dangers in the track of steamships,, after that the sea is studded with islands and rocks

which render the navigation difficult and dangerous, especially on dark and hazy nights. The places which are more especially dangerous are Jibbel Zukur Island and the Mokha Shoals. On Jibbel Zukur Island there are now the remains of three or four large steamers which have been wrecked there during the last year or two. By placing a lighthouse at Abu Ait Island, three miles to the eastward of the northern point of Jibbel Zukur, aud a light vessel on the Mokha Shoals, the navigation of this moat dangerous part of the Red Sea would be rendered much more safe and easy. For home-ward-bound ships there is also a great necessity for a light on the southeast end of the Shadwan Island, as a guide to the entrance of the Straits of Jubal. With the great increase of the traffic through the Red Sea which has taken place during the last few years, it is now high time that there should be some improvement in the lighting of this great highway to the East. "We may point out that the Canal Company are now extensively adopting Pintssch fixed and floating gas-lights for the canal entrance and elsewhere, and no doubt will soon employ them in tbe Red Sea, where they are very much wanted.

The following expression of opinion by "Chinese" Gordon, the distinguished officer who contributed so much twenty years ago to the pacification of China, and to the maintenance of tbe reigning dynasty on the throne of Pekin will be read with interest at a time when the outbreak of hostilities between France and China must be regarded as one of the possibilities of the immediate future. General Gordon writes as follows :—": — " China's game is, and will continue to be, to wait upon events, and she will try and work so as to embroil us with France, if she is herself compelled to go to war with that Power. There are, and would be, plenty of opportunities for the attainment of tbis object in the treaty Ports. One may say, humanely speaking, that China going to war with France must entail our following suite. This would be a bad thing in many ways for civili. sation because the Chinese are naturally bumptious enough, aud any success over Europeans would raise their arrogance to a perilously high pitch. Aud even if their success were due to an alliance with us," our assistance would be lightly forgotten. Such an alliance would not conduce to future harmony. Altogether, I do not think the world would gain in any respect by a war between France and China — no matter what the result of the contest might be ; and in the end, I doubt if it would be beneficial to China herself. Of one thing, however, the French may feel sure, and that is that the Chinese would avail themselves of all the most recent scientific discoveries in the military art, and in a struggle with a single foreign power would count a good deal on the services of such auxiliaries as dynamite and infernal machines."

The learned judge of the City of London Court, who is nothing if not outspoken, told a suitor recently that a "jury is at all times the most incompetent tribunal known to the law of England." However that may be (adds a Home paper), it must be admitted that individual jurymen sometimes do strange things ; and the conduct of one of the coroner's jury which has been inquiring into " the Waltham-

stow tragedy ' was rightly described by the doctor concerned in the case as scandalous and indelicate. The juryman in question had visited the mother of the murdered children, and he admitted that he " might hare used" such observations as that "it was no use trying to get her husband off th^ rope," and that "in the opinion of the * jury she had driven her husband to commit the crime through jealousy." It is not at all surprising that the poor woman's recovery should have been retarded by the juryman's visit, although he assured the coroner that the visit was " o£ a kindly nature, to see if he could be of any service."

Some people place some reliance upon filters for the purification of the water they drink. This, I think, is a great mistake. The filters give muddy water a clear appearance, but in nine eases out of ten the water is more impregnated with organic gerinß after it haa been filtered than it was before being passed through. The materials of th 6 filter, instead of destroying the germs, become a nursery for all sorts of noxious organisms. It is not the visible impurities of water which render it injurious. The horse, which is a very good judge of what to drink and what to avoid, will slake its thirst with satisfaction at a clay hole, while it often turns away with disgust from water that is perfectly limpid. I doubt if a horse would relish water that has been passed through an old domestic filter. Man, more sophisticated, is content with what pleases the eye. If I were compelled to use a filter I should . like to have one that could be baked or boiled once a week. If there is not such a thing, it ought to be invented. Nothing less than the fire test should be considered efficacious in regenerating a foul filter. Boiling the water is immensely more efficacious than filtering it ; the boiling clears it considerably, as well as frees it from organic contamination. The subsequent aeration of the water ia desirable bufc not indispensable. Usually a new filter seems to work very well for three or or four months, but after the water has once become unpleasant, no amount of ordiuary cleaning can do any good to the filter. Some are made to take to pieces, but this is only a palliative, not a remedy. As a rule, there is more safety without than with a filter.

Rust and takeall have appeared in the Victorian crops and in the Echuca district. Wheat has already been cut for hay owing to the damage done to it by rust. The gpneral tone of tbe crop reports is, however satisfactory, and some heavy yields are expected. The wool- clip has been exceptionally heavy, the wool of first-class quality, and stock, both cattle and sheep, exhibit splendid condition. The recent rains have had a most beneficial effect on the vines and fruit trees in Strathfieldsaye shire. The vines are particularly well forward, and promise excellent yields. It is stated that unless a series of reverses occur, the vintage of 1884< will prove a remarkably bounteous one. The fruit trees promise to be equally prolific, with the single exception of peaches, which are in some orchards affected with the blight. — " Leader." Never clean a horse in his stable. The dust fouls the crib and makes him loathe his food.

Pwnted and tMibliaked by PILUMfI BftflTffEHS, residing at Irvine-street, Lawrence, ot&g6, at their Registered Printing Office, Boas Place, Lawrence, Otago, in the Colony of New Zealand— Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1883,